Owning Your Own Shadow: A Jungian Approach to Transformative Self-Acceptance, Exploring the Unlit Part of the Ego and Finding Balance Through Spiritual Self-Discovery

What a diamond! I have found working with the shadow confusing at best. Then this small but beautiful book was purchased by me. Wow, so many questions became clear. This author is clear, gives great examples to provide understanding. Will purchase more from this author. So happy I found him!

This book provided insights I’ve been struggling with personally. The timing of finding this book could not have been better.

The book promises to help you understand the posited dark side of the psyche and own that, attempting to build on the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and I think it does a good job of that. This topic interests me. The shadow is explained. For example, beginning in childhood, most of us are subject to so much external explanation, control, and shaping, that our own natural gifts and understandings become repressed and form a shadow. This shadow can accumulate as much energy as the ego. When it accumulates more energy than that, it can erupt in various ways, for example, rage, accident, illness, depression, bad decisions, war. The shadow can be dark or light, with positive or negative traits. When we demonize others, we are projecting onto them our most negative shadow qualities. When we fall into romantic love, we are projecting onto our lover our most positive unacknowledged shadow qualities. The recommendation for dealing with this is to bring the shadow into awareness and expression. We can do that symbolically by ritual; we can sit with the two sides of the psyche and incorporate them both ... see the books on meditation for how that practice helps heal the psyche. To handle the shadow projections of others onto ourselves, we simply recognize them and let them go by. I posit a scale or curve in which on the extreme left is religion and on the extreme right is science; I see this book as more on the left side of that imaginary thought curve. Because I favor a more rational approach to the science of human behavior, this book contains information that I can understand and agree with, then goes on to make some claims I cannot endorse. For for former, an example would be that I agree with the concept of the acculturation process forcing some natural aspects of the personality into remission; the phenomenon of projection; and that meditation can help unify the personality. I do not agree that creativity must be balanced by the acting-out of destruction. Is this just what Jung stated? It does not matter, because if this is not an excuse for wars I don't know what is. More deeply, I believe it is a fundamental misunderstanding of the root cause of war, which, yes, is found in the psyche of man, but not a necessary balance to man's creativity. Carol Tavris, in her book Anger, explains how practicing a behavior and the thinking that appears to justify it, strengthens the behavior ... a figure-ground reversal takes place and the anger or other emotion takes control and strengthens ... and so with the war and destructiveness of man. Johnson also suggests that atheism is something highly destructive, and I happen to believe just the opposite, and that we can, and mostly do, practice Christian-themed morals on a secular basis, as exemplified by Jefferson and his version of the Bible. There are other books on the shadow, and I'm acquiring and reading more on this interesting topic.

I just wrapped up this book. It's a pretty short read at approximately 120 pages, and you can easily finish it in one day. I read the reviews before purchasing, but I decided to buy it anyway I had just Robert Johnson's other book on active imagination and dream work, which is phenomenal. It completely changed my life, and I highly recommend it. When I saw comments complaining that this book focuses on Christianity or that Robert Johnson is trying to push his Christianity on you, I thought, "Okay, that seems strange, but let's read it anyway." I'm super happy I did. I'm not a religious person, but I know there's a lot of symbolism in Christianity and the Bible. Even Carl Jung references God often in his works. Robert Johnson makes these references not to push religion on you, but to help you understand the shadow through a different lens. He uses symbolism in the Bible to explain and emphasize the concepts. If you're really turned off by the Bible and religion, I highly recommend Jordan Peterson's YouTube series on the Bible. It serves as a perfect primer to this book, with approximately 17 hours of lectures explaining the psychological significance of the Bible and its stories. Overall, this book is another amazing work by Robert Johnson, and I highly recommend it. It feels like a gem that many haven't discovered yet, and quite frankly, I'm surprised there are negative reviews for this book at all.

This one comes across more like a self-help book than some of Johnson's other works (He, She, We). I'm not a big fan of this approach- though he knows his Jungian psychology, so the ideas are still there.

This book was a random purchase because it stood out to me in the bookcase. I didn't expect much, but what I got was an eye-opening, life-changing experience. This author is phenomenal, his writing is such so that anyone can read it with ease. The way he flows his words and thoughts together are an art form. The subject matter is admittedly a overly saturated genre, mostly everyone saying the same thing with their little spin on it. Not with this writer. His views on the shadow self, human nature and the universe itself are unlike any I've ever read or heard. Yet he doesn't try to force it down your throat, he's not trying to convince you that his theory is right above all others. He just lays it out for you to make up your own mind. I'm not going to spoil the story for anyone, it's an experience that will be different for everyone I'm sure. I don't ever leave reviews about books. But I have given this book to probably 10 different people since I've read it. Given my own copy to people and ordered another one many times. He is in a league all his own..

My grandson started reading about this subject on a social website and wanted the book. He actually read the whole thing. He likes the advice and guidance and he seems to have gotten a lot out of it. Recommend!

This book will help anyone understand and apply shadow work. Easy to read, straight to the point, and could change your life! Or at least help lead you in the right direction. Read many reviews of different shadow work books and none of them sounded good at all. Took a chance with this one and so happy I did! It might be the best one out there. Worked for me 100%

This is an uncomfortable read for anyone who thinks at all about they own behaviour. Everyone has a shadow - that is qualities in their personality which they are not aware of and which they often project on to other people. Anyone we meet and take an instinct dislike to could be the recipient of a shadow projection from us. As human beings we tend to be very good at recognising other people's bad qualities while being totally blind to those same qualities in ourselves. The author makes clear that it is not just the unacceptable aspects of our own personalities which we project and we may be projecting qualities which could be of immense value in our own lives if we could only recognise and reclaim them. We need to accept all of our own personalities and characters or we will constantly find them coming back to bite us in unexpected ways. This is a lifetime job and most of it will never completely acknowledge all of our own qualities but we need to make the attempt. A thought provoking read.

A teoria apresentada segue a linha junguiana, do inconsciente, e mostra desequilíbrios psíquicos, tal como depressão, como uma oportunidade para se reavaliar escolhas e atitudes de modo a nos tornar mais completos como seres humanos e satisfeitos com a vida. A leitura reflexiva é um excelente exercício de autoconhecimento.

Clear concise information. Easy read and reread. Alot of complex information captured in a manner to make it accessible to all. I have this is the version via Kindle App highly recommend Van easily take notes highlight and save these for quick acess anytime to read/ re-read.

cried while reading

Me interesan muchísimo las explicaciones del autor sobre el pensamiento de Carl Gustav Jung.